Fair weather fishing report

It is so nice to have choices. Saturday was the first really decent day we’ve had since November, and I had two choices for how I would spend it. One choice was to head to one of our North Carolina Lakes for a day of bass fishing. The other was to stay at home with my wife Susan and attend my grandson John II’s second birthday party. I will give you one guess as to what I decided to do. Yes I went fishing.

Just kidding, I could not have imagined myself on a lake somewhere casting for bass while my son, his son and our family and friends enjoyed pizza, chicken wings, cupcakes, birthday cake, and all kinds of other party goodies. While there are many more days ahead for fishing, there will never be another second birthday party for my first grandchild.

My cousin Jim called and informed me that he will be USCG certified Captain Jim in a couple of weeks as soon as the paperwork comes thru. He has passed the entire class along with all required examinations and now it’s just a matter of time before he’ll have a parrot on his shoulder, start saying things like “Ahoy Mate”, and walk around carrying a cutlass (a sword not an Oldsmobile). I am looking forward to heading out on the high seas with a licensed captain as soon as the weather warms a little bit.

I am scheduled to compete in at least one tournament a week from late February thru September. Along with competing in the Bassmaster Weekend Series with my sights once again set on the National Championship, I will be fishing in the Fishers of Men Team Series with my partner Vern Fleming. There will also be several husband and wife tournaments that Susan and I will enter as time allows (and the weather allows as Susan is a fair weather fisherwoman). This will be a busy season and I feel confident that I will see as good as or better results as last year.

It was nice being out on Lake Norman Sunday enjoying the beautiful (70 degree) weather and I was also able to catch a few bass. I ended up catching 3 small keepers, two on shaky heads and one on a deep diving jerk bait. I lost one more that felt like a better fish after it wrapped me around something under a dock. I had a couple of bites on brush piles where I’d marked some good sized fish but didn’t set the hook fast enough and missed them both..

I spoke to a group of Virginia Tech college anglers at the ramp as they were loading up following the weigh in for their small tournament. The winner weighed 5 fish for just less than 9 pounds. They reported catching all their fish early in the day on jerk baits on main lake points.

Next report – Striper and bass fishing report from Kerr Lake where they should be biting jigging spoons.

Tip of the week – Add some of the blue STA-BIL Fuel Stabilizer Marine Formula to each tank of gas to prevent problems caused by the ethanol that is now being added to almost all the gas being sold today. This is especially important when you are not planning on using up the gas in a couple of weeks.

It is great to see all the college teams involved in bass fishing now. They are highly competitive. I have even spoken to one NCSU Basspack team member who passed up a wrestling scholarship at a small school to attend State and fish. The future of sportfishing can only keep getting better.